Electronic commerce (e-commerce) is growing in popularity with increased use of the Internet and the world wide web. While some web sites just provide information over the web and then rely on telephone calls for placing orders or buying products and services, many other companies, including booksellers and mutual fund companies, allow purchases to be made and other commerce to be transacted over the web. These companies typically have a web server with back end processing software and a database with information that can be provided over the web, including product information and ordering forms. These sites are typically designed to generate dynamic content that is personalized and secure for self-service. If a user is having a problem working with a form on the web site or finding relevant information, the user may be able to call a call center to ask about the problem and describe what he or she sees.
A prior method for collaboration, in which content can be shared over the Internet between a user and an agent, is described in patent publication WO 97/42728, which is expressly incorporated herein by reference.
Dynamic content is content that requires some processing to typically add or select information that is customized or unique to the user in some way. For example, a user who is already known to the web site could be served with a form in which a name, address, and credit card number are filled in at the web site, in advance, for the convenience of the purchaser. Other examples include pages in which content is based on information provided by the user, such as mapping information that obtains from the user an initial position and a destination and performs calculations that determine the directions.
When more than one participant to a collaboration session wish to collaborate with respect to a page that has dynamic content, it is desirable that each user see the same dynamically generated content. However, it would not be desirable for each participant to have the same processing performed repeatedly, because such duplication would create additional overhead and potentially duplicate audit trails and even business transactions. Furthermore, it is very desirable to restrict access to the shared session to collaboration participants, protecting shared content from unauthorized access from the Internet.